The Panelists are back with episode 2 of our Fullmetal Alchemist readthrough. In these volumes, we learn so much about how the world of Fullmetal Alchemist works behind the scenes, the darkest plans of our villains, the atrocities committed by our heroes, and which characters make for the best horny fanart.

We spoil volumes 1-9 in this episode. Check out our episode on those volumes here!

• (00:00) - “Fullmetal Alchemist” by Hiromu Arakawa
• (02:33) - Spoiler-free summary
• (03:21) - Impressions vs last time
• (07:59) - Spoiler Zone
• (11:52) - Spoilery Summary
• (15:13) - Matt was late on his reading
• (15:45) - The Pride Reveal
• (17:30) - There’s a lot of war crimes going on here
• (30:25) - The openness of the big bads
• (35:14) - Brotherhood differences
• (37:35) - Arakawa loves big boobs
• (38:33) - Some FMA ships
• (41:42) - The chess pieces
• (43:38) - Scout’s favorite Elric brothers moments
• (47:55) - BIG ENVY
• (53:56) - 2003 differences
• (55:36) - Al’s body
• (56:13) - Hughes!
• (57:02) - Greedling
• (01:01:24) - Sloth’s transmutation circle
• (01:07:15) - Arakawa’s planning
• (01:09:22) - The human sacrifices
• (01:12:33) - Winry and Scar
• (01:22:12) - Dr. Knox
• (01:26:29) - Listener Questions
• (01:31:51) - Further Reading

• You can find more of Hiromu Arakawa’s work in her completed series Silver Spoon and ongoing series Daemons of the Shadow Realm (second of which has recently begun airing its anime adaptation!)
• If you find yourself thinking “man, these fight scenes are pretty cool, I wonder what they’d look like if someone animated the hell out of them,” Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood can be found on many streaming services
• If you find yourself thinking “wow, I’m really enjoying how this shonen adventure story is also about the horrors of war and government corruption”, I would recommend Hunter x Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi

A comics podcast for everyone, proud to be a part of The Worst Garbage network.

Find us on Bluesky or Tumblr.

This week’s panelists can be found at:
Scout
Matt

Jillian

Editing this week by AJ Fillari.
Cover art by Scout Wilkinson.
Intro/Outro music by Boqeh.

Come along with the panelists as we venture back to the mythical, long-ago land of 2012. Cape comics are on the show once more with Marvel's Hawkeye, as written by Matt Fraction and illustrated by a large team of artists (David Aja chief among them). The story of oft-ignored Avenger Clint Barton and his protege Kate Bishop takes us coast-to-coast and through half a dozen different art styles, but at the heart of it lies the question...Just how far can the lone wolf archetype actually get you?

• (00:00) - “Hawkeye” by Matt Fraction & David Aja
• (00:20) - Front Matter
• (01:19) - Non-spoiler summary
• (01:46) - Impressions
• (04:49) - Structure & time
• (06:40) - Art!
• (14:08) - Do you need to know the characters?
• (20:44) - Understanding this comic
• (24:29) - Some soul-searching
• (31:58) - SPOILER ZONE
• (32:46) - Bro
• (34:18) - The humor
• (39:01) - The women in Clint’s life
• (42:58) - Some great paneling
• (46:55) - The LA stuff
• (52:29) - RIP Encounter Restaurant
• (52:58) - The gay couple
• (55:18) - Madame Masque’s design
• (56:43) - When Clint loses his hearing
• (59:26) - Pizza is my business
• (01:06:59) - Issue 10
• (01:08:26) - Kate’s shirt
• (01:09:23) - Kate’s car
• (01:10:22) - The color script
• (01:14:27) - The last 2 pages
• (01:19:10) - Further reading

- Matt Fraction’s “Batman”
- David Aja’s “Immortal Iron Fist”
- Mark Waid’s “Daredevil”
- Jimmy Corrigan the smartest kid on earth - Chris Ware
- Gillen and McKelvie’s “Young Avengers”

A comics podcast for everyone, proud to be a part of The Worst Garbage network.

Find us on Bluesky or Tumblr.

This week’s panelists can be found at:
Scout
Matt
Robin

Jillian

Editing this week by AJ Fillari.
Cover art by Scout Wilkinson.
Intro/Outro music by Boqeh.

Today the Panelists discuss the young adult horror novel Hello Sunshine by Keezy Young. This one's got everything you could want. Secret gay boyfriends. 60's fashion and art inspiration. An amateur murder investigation. Demons. And a cute dog.

Content Warning: self-harm, suicide, murder, mental illness, psychosis, and homophobia

• (00:00) - “Hello Sunshine” by Keezy Young
• (00:35) - Front Matter
• (01:09) - Content Warnings
• (01:27) - Impressions
• (04:12) - The pace of the book
• (07:16) - Noah ❤️
• (09:00) - Jamie
• (10:20) - Sky
• (10:34) - Izzy
• (12:41) - Keezy’s art
• (13:36) - Color scripting
• (15:31) - Faces!
• (17:16) - Fashion Corner
• (19:51) - SPOILER ZONE
• (20:44) - Mrs. Danner is innocent!
• (21:29) - Sky getting told off by her mom
• (22:39) - Horror & Mental Health
• (31:33) - A personal experience of psychosis
• (34:02) - This story works best as a comic
• (36:35) - This book is scary!
• (40:11) - Madame Rainbow is [REDACTED]
• (44:14) - Informative but not Didactic
• (46:12) - Noah and Alex in the field of flowers
• (48:16) - Trans rep
• (52:11) - Speech patterns of the kids
• (52:58) - Read the Afterword
• (54:34) - Further Reading

- Just Going For a Walk by Keezy Young

- Sunflowers by Keezy Young

A comics podcast for everyone, proud to be a part of The Worst Garbage network.

Find us on Bluesky or Tumblr.

This week’s panelists can be found at:
Scout
Matt
Robin

Jillian

Editing this week by AJ Fillari.
Cover art by Scout Wilkinson.
Intro/Outro music by Boqeh.

Today the panelists discuss Scott McCloud's classic, Understanding Comics, a book that purports to be a lecture but in many cases comes off as a manifesto. We discuss Scott's messy definition of the medium, his genuinely good insights, and also his strong creative biases.

This book is impossible to spoil so there is no spoiler section.

• (00:00) - "Understanding Comics" by Scott McCloud
• (03:18) - Front Matter
• (05:22) - Impressions
• (10:18) - We’ve moved past this
• (13:10) - The mechanics of comics
• (20:20) - Part lecture, part manifesto
• (22:15) - Another opinionated textbook
• (33:15) - The definition of comics
• (41:11) - This about video games
• (42:41) - Scout has a callout
• (46:34) - Dude predicted emoji
• (47:36) - Great iconography
• (49:29) - A short biography
• (50:58) - Gutters!
• (53:23) - Pacing
• (55:27) - Public discussion
• (59:49) - Further Reading

- Reinventing Comics by Scott McCloud
- Making Comics by Scott McCloud
- Comics and Sequential Art by Will Eisner
- The Comic Book History of Comics by Fred Van Lente & Ryan Dunlavey
- Inventing Comics (from Comics Journal #234, June 2001) by Dylan Horrocks

A comics podcast for everyone, proud to be a part of The Worst Garbage network.

Find us on Bluesky or Tumblr.

This week’s panelists can be found at:
Scout
Matt
Robin

Jillian

Editing this week by AJ Fillari.
Cover art by Scout Wilkinson.
Intro/Outro music by Boqeh.

The panelists discuss "Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou", an incredibly slow-paced slice-of-life about a robot named Alpha living in a world deeply shaped by climate change. Despite that dark-sounding premise, the book is very calm and beautiful to look at, dealing mostly with the mundanity of Alpha's every day as she learns about the world around her. Also the persimmons are huge!

• (00:00) - "Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou" by Hitoshi Ashinano
• (01:02) - Front Matter
• (03:43) - Our experience
• (05:47) - Impressions
• (12:15) - Art!
• (17:40) - A question from stevefm
• (24:36) - Spoilers! (If you can spoil this manga)
• (25:55) - How the world gets bigger
• (27:55) - A unique coming of age story
• (30:23) - Time and memory
• (38:24) - Kokone
• (44:46) - Androids connection with machines
• (48:44) - What are spot blacks?
• (51:42) - They’re so gay
• (51:56) - The cryptids as androids
• (58:58) - Alpha’s quirks
• (01:01:00) - Translation and dialect
• (01:03:35) - Where we left off
• (01:08:30) - Big persimmons!
• (01:10:25) - Further Reading

• Nothing else by Ashinano has an official English translation ¯\(ツ)/¯
• Two YKK OVAs (not streaming anywhere but not hard to find)
• Thematically similar:
  • Super Cub
  • Apocalypse Hotel (anime)

A comics podcast for everyone, proud to be a part of The Worst Garbage network.

Find us on Bluesky or Tumblr.

This week’s panelists can be found at:
Scout
Matt
Robin

Jillian

Editing this week by AJ Fillari.
Cover art by Scout Wilkinson.
Intro/Outro music by Boqeh.

Today, the panelists discuss "Run Away With Me, Girl" by Battan. We're back with another yuri manga! Robin, Scout, Jillian, and Matt talk about the unique aspects of Midori's and Moko's relationship, the gendered tropes of yuri vs yaoi, the strange incel arc of the manga's antagonist, and the joy of seeing a story about the child of queer parents.

Content Warning: Domestic abuse

• (00:00) - “Run Away With Me, Girl” by Battan
• (00:38) - Front Matter
• (01:29) - Impressions
• (04:46) - Midori & Momo
• (06:25) - Art thoughts
• (09:14) - Fashion Corner
• (09:55) - Yuri vs Yaoi Gender Tropes
• (10:53) - SPOILER ZONE
• (10:56) - CW: Domestic violence
• (11:16) - Spoilery summary
• (12:35) - Dude SUCKS
• (19:53) - The girlcel
• (21:48) - Tazune’s incel arc
• (25:31) - This is just how things are
• (26:58) - Using the medium well
• (27:59) - Why are they acting like she’s married?!
• (30:14) - Momo
• (32:30) - Momo’s mom & homophobia
• (33:53) - The hostel owner
• (36:43) - The time skip
• (44:28) - Final thoughts
• (44:39) - Further Reading

- And Then There Were No Heroines by Battan
- The Golden Fly by Battan
- Secondhand Sisters by Battan
- Fatale Game by Battan

A comics podcast for everyone, proud to be a part of The Worst Garbage network.

Find us on Bluesky or Tumblr.

This week’s panelists can be found at:
Scout
Matt
Robin

Jillian

Editing this week by AJ Fillari.
Cover art by Scout Wilkinson.
Intro/Outro music by Boqeh.

Today, Scout and Matt discuss KOH-BOKU, famous for foreign readers introducing its creator to the phrase "Old Man Yaoi." They discuss the success and failures of tropes, representations of aging in manga, and the strange gender dynamics going on in this book.

• (00:00) - "KOH-BOKU" by Sonoo Michiru
• (00:46) - Front Matter
• (01:54) - Plot Summary
• (02:22) - Old man yaoi!
• (03:28) - This is bare bones yaoi
• (04:38) - “Old man yaoi”?
• (06:09) - Michiru’s first manga
• (06:55) - The “tropes”
• (14:22) - Matt says 1 good thing
• (16:13) - The art
• (19:44) - Scout likes the ambiguity
• (23:01) - SPOILER ZONE
• (28:11) - The gender of it all
• (31:37) - Go read Love in the Palm of His Hand!
• (32:44) - A couple great moments
• (38:42) - Intersubjectivity
• (42:26) - Further Reading

• Sonoo Michiru has a lot of oneshots that focus on similar demographics and topics - she loves some guys who have jobs and want to kiss.
• Love in the Palm of his Hand is the other yaoi manga we’ve covered on In Sequence and I stand by that being a real good example of the genre.
• Black Blood by Hayate Kuku
• Wet Sand by Doyak
• Lover Boy by ZEC
• SHWD: Special Hazardous Waste Disposal by sono N

A comics podcast for everyone, proud to be a part of The Worst Garbage network.

Find us on Bluesky or Tumblr.

This week’s panelists can be found at:
Scout
Matt

Editing this week by AJ Fillari.
Cover art by Scout Wilkinson.
Intro/Outro music by Boqeh.

What does it take to tell a wordless story? Today, the panelists explore that question as Jillian guides Matt and Scout through the fantastical immigrant story of The Arrival by Shaun Tan. Together, we muse on the power of reaching out and sharing our stories to bring us closer together, even when we feel worlds apart. (And also, discuss the immutable staying power of a weird little guy.)

• (00:00) - “The Arrival” by Shaun Tan
• (00:21) - Front Matter
• (01:52) - Our experience with The Arrival
• (04:17) - Zero words!
• (08:35) - The antique photo style
• (10:29) - Dark gutters!
• (12:13) - SPOILER ZONE
• (12:44) - Symmetry
• (14:35) - The creature
• (15:19) - Not the real world but very real
• (18:12) - Kinship with the main character
• (19:50) - Moments that stuck with us
• (27:16) - The final page
• (32:07) - Familiars
• (38:02) - Studying this book
• (42:51) - Further reading

• Tan has written and illustrated several other books, with his other most notable being “The Lost Thing”
• Tan’s essay on the picture book: https://www.shauntan.net/esssay-picture-books-who-for
• Daytripper by Fabio Moon & Gabriel Ba
• Nonfiction graphic novels about the experience of immigrants and refugees are a genre all in their own - there’s a lot out there for you to take your pick from! Here’s a brief list curated by the Chicago Public Library: https://chipublib.bibliocommons.com/v2/list/display/298488099/1717973901

A comics podcast for everyone, proud to be a part of The Worst Garbage network.

Find us on Bluesky or Tumblr.

This week’s panelists can be found at:
Scout
Matt

Jillian

Editing this week by AJ Fillari.
Cover art by Scout Wilkinson.
Intro/Outro music by Boqeh.